Introduction - ADLINK Technology com express User Manual

1 Introduction

The COM Express approach of custom carrier combined with off the shelf system cores is an
excellent solution when you need to customize but lack the time or quantity for a complete
redesign. It fits most system integration projects with production volumes from 500 to 10,000 pcs
per year. The COM Express concept has a great many advantages over full custom designs, it
reduces engineering complexity, lowers the threshold for total project quantity and last but not
least brings your product to the market in no time. The average time to design a carrier board is
less than half the time of a full custom OEM board.
Express-BASE is a standard ATX size carrier board. Together with the COM Express module of
your choice and off the shelf add-on cards you can quickly emulate the functionality of your
desired end product for software development and hardware verification.
To build a functional prototype of your target system you will need:
COM Express module
Express-BASE carrier board
PCI Express or PCI add on cards
PATA / SATA storage or Flash disk solution
Express-BASE accommodates up to five PCI Express x1 slots, one PCI Express Graphics x16
slot, one ExpressCard slot and one PCI slot.
The board is based on PICMG's COM Express specification and is compatible with:
Standard form factor Type 2 COM Express modules
Express-BASE User's Manual Page 7